As part of this bimonthly processing,
ScienceWatch.com selects the Research Fronts with the largest absolute
increase in size in each of the 22 major
fields covered by Essential Science IndicatorsSM
from Thomson
Reuters. The size of a research front is determined by the number of
core papers it contains. This Research Front on THE HIRSCH INDEX from the field of
Computer Science was
selected for mapping from the list of Top Topics for December 2008
(data from the fourth bimonthly period of
2008). The map is a diagrammatic
representation of the 24 core papers comprising the front
in
Computer Science.

Each circle
represents a highly cited paper whose bibliographic information is displayed
when the user clicks on the circle. The lines between circles represent the
strongest co-citation links for each paper (that is, indicating that the papers
are frequently cited together). Papers close to each other on the map are
generally more highly co-cited. The most recent paper(s) are indicated in pink. For this particular map, annotations have been added representing the main
research themes. These appear as labels attached to specific regions on the
maps.